Supreme Court allows Karti Chidambaram to travel abroad

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, to travel to the United Kingdom, France and Spain after depositing Rs 10 crore.

The top court, however, warned him that not even an iota of non-cooperation by him in the investigation against him in criminal cases would be tolerated.

"You can go wherever you want to, you can do whatever you want, but don't play around with the law," a three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi told Karti's counsel, senior advocate K V Vishwanathan.
"We will come down heavily if an iota of non-cooperation is found," the bench said.

The court also pointed out orally that Karti had earlier been not cooperating with the investigation agencies.

"Please tell your client that not an inch of non-cooperation would help. We wish to say many things, but prudence stops us," the bench said.

The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, allowed his plea to travel to the United Kingdom and France between February 10 and 26 and Spain between March 23 and 31.

At the outset, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate, submitted that the agency wanted to interrogate him on March 5, 6, 7 and 12. He said the petitioner can be allowed to visit foreign countries except on those specified dates with an undertaking that he would return to the country.

Karti has been facing several criminal cases including one in connection with the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance in the INX-Media case during his father's tenure as Finance Minister.

In his application, Karti said he was vice-president of Tamil Nadu Tennis Association and a member of Indian Tennis Players Association.

His travel plan was scheduled in view of international tennis tournaments organised by Totus Tennis Ltd.